A 10in tablet you can draw on
Last issue we looked at the Samsung Galaxy NotePro 12.2, a 12in Android tablet with a stylus that’s too heavy and expensive. There is an alternative, though, in the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, a smaller, lighter, cheaper version.
The Note 10.1 is slender yet comfortable to hold as there’s a reasonably wide border around the screen giving you something to grip. The back has a faux-leather plastic finish complete with fake stitching. It won’t be to everyone’s tastes and, compared to the sleek metal of the iPad, feels a bit cheap.
The screen has a resolution of 2560x1600 pixels. It is exceptionally bright with vibrant colours and crisp text, so it’s great both for reading and for watching HD films and TV shows. Our biggest gripe with Android tablets is how few apps are developed specifically for their large screens, with many of them poorly rehashed phone apps. While it might appear that Samsung has tried to remedy this problem with its own suite of apps, most of them serve little purpose other than to try to trick you into spending money with Samsung.
The included stylus is one of the tablet’s major selling points, but is woefully under- exploited. The S Pen – as it’s known – is both precise and sensitive, making it a great tool for budding and professional artists and designers. It is stored in a small nook in the top-right corner of the tablet with a menu appearing once you remove it. This menu provides easy access to the included apps designed for use with the stylus, including a note-taking app, a scrapbook app and an app that lets you annotate a screenshot of whatever is on your screen.
Unfortunately, most of these apps are underwhelming. SketchBook for Galaxy is the exception with its range of sophisticated tools for easily creating stunning works of art. A wide range of brushes are available and artworks can have multiple layers too. By drawing straight on the screen – rather than using a mouse or graphics tablet as you would on a PC – you can sketch quickly and accurately. More apps like this are needed if the stylus is to realise its full potential.
The Note 10.1 runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and is one of the fastest tablets we’ve seen, scoring top marks in our 3D graphics and webpage-loading tests. It handled everything we threw at it with ease thanks to its large 3GB of memory and its unusual eight-core processor which is actually a pair of quad-core processors that work together.
The main 1.9GHz quad-core processor uses the latest technology, so it handles complex, demanding apps, while a slower and older, but more power-efficient 1.3GHz quad-core processor takes on less intensive tasks to help prolong battery life. Battery life was merely okay at just under nine hours. If the included 16GB of storage space isn’t enough, there’s a microSD card slot for adding more.
The cameras on the Note 10.1 are fair to middling at best. The front-facing two-megapixel camera is fine for Skype video calls, but the eight-megapixel camera on the back is prone to wildly over-saturating images and mucking up contrast in anything other than ideal lighting conditions.
The Note 10.1 2014 Edition is let down by its cheap build quality and a lack of quality apps that take advantage of its high-resolution screen. Nonetheless it’s the best 10in Android tablet currently available, especially if you’re a keen, budding artist. If you don’t want the stylus, though, the superb iPad Air (£399, see Issue 411) and the equally excellent Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (£339, see Issue 414) are better value.
SPECIFICATIONS
10.1in 2560x1600-pixel touchscreen • Samsung Exynos Octa 5420 eight-core processor • 3GB memory • 16GB storage • Android 4.3 Jelly Bean • 540g • 243x171x8mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty
VERDICT: A fast tablet with an excellent screen, but it feels cheap and there aren’t enough apps for the stylus.
★★★★☆
ALTERNATIVE: Apple iPad Air £399 An even lighter 10in tablet with an excellent screen and peerless selection of apps, but no stylus
